TRENTON, N.J. - Jardiance sharply reduced chances of dying in diabetic patients at high risk of heart complications, a study shows, making the Type 2 diabetes medication the first shown to lengthen diabetics' lives.

The study found Jardiance reduced deaths from heart complications by 38 percent, deaths from any cause by 32 percent and hospitalizations due to chronic heart failure by 35 percent.

Heart complications kill many of the estimated 387 million diabetics worldwide, so doctors in recent years have moved from trying to reduce patients' blood sugar to trying to prevent cardiovascular complications.

The results were particularly striking because nearly four-fifths of the participants were taking standard medicines to control blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol, plus taking Jardiance or a dummy pill.

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Lilly and German partner Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals Inc. funded the study, which included 7,020 patients in 42 countries followed for about three years, on average.

Last month, the drugmakers announced their study showed cardiovascular deaths were lower in participants taking Jardiance than those given a dummy pill, in addition to standard heart and diabetes drugs. Detailed results were released Thursday, simultaneously at a European medical conference and in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"Patients who took this drug had basically a 1-in-3 chance of avoiding death," said Dr. Silvio Inzucchi, director of the Yale Diabetes Center and a professor at Yale School of Medicine.

He is on the committee overseeing the study.

Given the savings from averting costly hospitalizations, Jardiance should appeal to insurers as well as doctors and patients, even with a wholesale price of $343 per month - among the most expensive for diabetes medicines.

Heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular damage kill about half of Type 2 diabetes patients, as excess sugar in their blood steadily damages the heart, blood vessels and other organs.

The Jardiance study, called EMPA-REG, found the drug reduced by 14 percent the combined number of nonfatal heart attacks, nonfatal strokes and deaths due to heart complications in study participants. Those outcomes are typically analyzed as a group in studies involving heart risks.

"It's a quite impressive study," given the results and number of patients and countries included, said Dr. Yogish Kudva, a Mayo Clinic diabetes specialist not involved in the research.